Class Action vs Mass Tort
Both let many plaintiffs sue together. The structural differences decide how much you can recover and how long it takes.
Class actions and mass torts both bundle many plaintiffs into one proceeding, but they treat the plaintiffs differently.
How they handle plaintiffs
A class action treats the class as one legal entity. One judgment applies to everyone. Damages are typically calculated at the class level, then divided pro rata among approved claims. Class members are passive: they file a short claim form, get a per-class share, and move on.
A mass tort keeps each plaintiff's case separate, even when they are consolidated for pretrial proceedings. Each plaintiff has their own lawyer, their own damages calculation, and their own settlement or trial. Mass torts are typical for pharmaceutical injury (talcum powder, opioids, Roundup), defective medical devices, and large-scale environmental harm.
How recovery scales
In a class action, the average per-class-member recovery is usually small. A $90 million fund split among 2 million claimants pays about $30 per person after costs. The class action is designed to make small harms litigable, not to fully compensate.
In a mass tort, individual recoveries can range from $1,000 to over $1 million depending on documented harm. Plaintiffs with serious injuries get more. The trade-off is that you need to be an active participant: gather records, sit for depositions, possibly testify.
Which you are probably in
If you got a notice in the mail for a data breach, an app, a financial product, or a low-value consumer item, it is almost certainly a class action. If you have a documented serious physical injury from a drug, device, or chemical, or you were exposed to a defective product that caused lasting harm, talk to a lawyer about mass tort representation.
The same defendant can face both at once. The 3M military earplug litigation, for example, started as MDL-consolidated mass tort and later spawned related class actions for distinct injuries.